My stories as a first time mum

Month: November 2015

It’s amazing what a cafe latte and some good company can do to your mood.

During the 8 weeks since I have been a mother this was my second visit to a café.

What happened was that I met a friend yesterday, who I haven’t met for ages, for a coffee and for some catching up. She is a mum of a 2 1/2 years old boy so she has some experience. It was so nice to talk to someone who has been through pretty much the same stuff (even though each baby is unique) and who totally gets me.

Sitting in a coffee place and doing something as simple as enjoying a coffee, which is something I used to do before my baby arrived, reminded me of my old life. But it was also like a wake up call that I don’t have to stop doing what I was doing before. Maybe there is no old and new life, just my same life but enhanced.

Staying at home all day with a baby can affect a mum’s psychology. It has affected mine. And I know that going out is the only remedy. Truth be told you need to plan more when you have a baby before you go out but it’s not impossible.

I know I must kick my own butt, take advantage of the hours when my baby is more calm and go out for a walk, go to the coffee place and just enjoy a coffee there or as take-out while window shopping.

I’m not a doctor just a first time mum. I know how common it is to get the baby blues especially the first two- three weeks after delivery, and I believe I had it. Now after almost 8 werks I do feel better, in terms of depression, but motherhood is hard.

Some facts that I’ve read is that your body is full of hormones during pregnancy and on delivery they get released, in simple words your body gets emptied. This sudden change is what may cause baby blues. It’s purely biological so don’t be hard on yourselves if you feel you have the blues.

It’s been 8 weeks since my precious boy came into this world. Right now I cannot say that I feel depressed but I have this anxiety that is annoying the hell out of me. I’m so worried about this little guy that I’m anxious about his well being all the time. Perfectly normal you will say. I agree. I guess I’m just looking forward to his milestones, to see him grow, for him to start communicating with me.

Add to the whole new mum thing the darkness of the Scandinavia, well it’s not a surprise that I feel like that. Many people get a small dose of depression, let alone anxieties, new mums or not, men or women, during this season.

As I’ve mentioned before I started this blog just to get out my thoughts, to have something to keep my head active and I actually feel good writing about it.

Are you a new mother with similar feelings? Feel free to share them with me.

My little boy is growing so fast. He is not even two months old and he is already 6 kilos and 60cm long.

He doesn’t have a food routine yet and it feels like he is eating all the time. I know babies need all the food they can get especially the first three months and I’m giving it to him. But it will be nice once we establish a steady food routine.

For the record I mix feed him.*

I wanted to breastfeed since the moment I found out I was pregnant. However, I had no idea that it is an art that you need to learn. I thought it would be the most natural thing in the world, and it is, but I’m one of the many mums that haven’t had the best experience so far. I remember I was surprised when I got all the brochures from my midwife regarding breastfeeding where there was this question “from a scale from 1-10 how would you imagine your breastfeeding experience”. I thought instantly 10 (where ten means best experience ever)

Don’t get me wrong, I love it when I have him on me and I wish I could breastfeed exclusively but unfortunately that’s not the case.

It was hard on day 3 when my milk was supposed to come down (sorry english is not my mother tongue so I’m not sure if I’m using the right expression here) so my little one was so hungry. I had a tough delivery and I lost a lot of blood which from what I’ve been hearing and reading it might affect my milk supply. That’s when he got his first formula supplement.

Now things are way better but I suppose I have a practical problem. My boobs are not that big and sometimes latching is not easy. And he is growing rapidly so I cannot handle him as easily as when he was one day old and tiny (well if you can call a 4 kilos newborn tiny).

But we manage. And I’m also trying to be realistic. Even if I’m mix feeding him, (otherwise he is on the boob 24/7 with almost no break and well mummy wants to go to the toilet sometimes, and since I can’t pump that much with my manual pump) I want to reach the recommended 6 months of breastfeeding. However, I say to myself that with all the struggles I will feel happy if we can reach 3 months. If we do that then I will continue to reach the next milestone and we’ll see then how it goes.

I support all types of feeding. Exclusive breastfeeding, mixed or exclusive formula. Keep doing what’s best for your little ones 🙂 and please stop the shaming.

New mum, new life new adventures. I started writing because this has been a very overwhelming trip so far – full of love and also stress and I can’t keep it inside me. I need to take it out. It’s almost therapeutic and if I can offer a tiny amount of help to other mums like me then that would make me very happy.As an intro I just want to say that when I held my son for the first time it was then that I felt true live and a feeling of warmth that I’ve never experienced before. And so it begun.